Phoenix Wings
by Akatsuki Feathers
Summary: How does one run from something that is everywhere at once? There is nothing safe to them, except the security of their arms. *Dip*


The sky was a thick navy hue, the stars that were embedded into its velvet sending out small radials of crystal light, while the moon cast off a small sliver of light. The sun had long earlier set, spreading its pastels and molting them into deep shades of cold, before finally it turned into the shades of the deep sea. Or, perhaps the deep sea was forever trying to mimic that color of the night sky. The grass was soft and plush, not yet eaten away by the sheep or the cattle. It was gentle against the touch and full with breathing, earthy life. It swayed and sighed with the ever so gentle wind of the abnormally warm late spring, early summer day. Everything was alive, everything was asleep, everything was one that single moment.

The boy's breath released with the earth as he looked up at the sky. He was just as settled as everything else was within the little world that they rested within. Away from the city, away from the town, away from the neighborhoods, everything was serine and genuinely peaceful. Nothing there was to disturb him from whatever his mission for that night was to be. No human resided there other than himself and one other, another who was off in a place that did not concern the boy in the least. All was fine in the valley.

A flare of gold sparked by the boy's head, reflecting brilliant halos against his blonde hair; he shook them away as he sat up and turned to the second.

The second boy grinned, smile clipped and precise, as he sat down next to him. He placed the lantern down in between them, casting that gold against their fair paper skin and onto their dirtied clothes. The stars seemed a little less clear as they had been before.

A ring of gold reflected against the blonde's soft eyes, contrasting heavily against the crisp blue that made up the iris. He smiled back, far more reserved and slightly less clean. His was not the slightest bit tired, but the wear seemed to show on his companions face.

He must have come back to tell him that it was time to get some rest.

His internal clock had soon shut down after they had left the sight of a clock; he had not the foggiest clue what time it actually was. He certainly was awake enough and he did not see why he would be. After all, how often could one see something as beautiful as what he was seeing now?

It was a wonder how something so beautiful could be hidden so completely by humans.

"Pip,"

The blonde blinked slowly, his eyelids lowering slower than they normally would have. He turned back to him and blinked another slow blink once more.

"We should sleep; we still have a long way to drive tomorrow." The darker haired boy muttered, as per usual when he was tired. His dark eyes were hidden by clasped lids and nestled above blood-pooled skin. Everything about the teen oozed a dark serenity, a dangerous aura that made his eyes sparkle in just the right light. But everything was right and just in the world that the two rested within.

He blinked a third time, "May we rest here tonight? It is simply too comfortable for me to get up off of at the moment." The blonde lowered himself back down onto the grass and felt his muscles tingle with comfort. It was better than home.

He heaved a sigh and lowered himself down next to him, arms folding behind his neck as a make-shift headrest. "Why would you want to sleep in a field? The car has nicer seats and proper heating. You're going to get sick."

Pip laughed lightly, amused at his companion. "Just rest here for a moment, Damien. If you cannot fall asleep, then we shall go back to the car."

He groaned weakly as he got up, turned the lantern off, and set himself back down onto the grass. He looked over at the parked car by the edge of the country road longingly, before he finally shut his smoldering eyes and tried to sleep. He stretched out, legs spread out while his arms continued to support his cranium.

The blonde curled up against his side and rested his head against Damien's ribs, listening soundly at the flutter of his heartbeat and the rhythmic pushing and pulling of Damien's breath.

He was already slowing to a breath of slumber as Pip rested his head against his form. Lost in pre-dreams, he finally felt the peace that Pip had been experiencing while he was away. It was like he was wrapped in a blanket, content and warm as he slept in bed on a bitter winter's day.

Pip smiled softly as he allowed his restless eyes to shut and his worn body to relax completely. As sleep took him to a distant land, he felt his breath match up with Damien's, and with the rest of the world.

* * *

The sun peaked over the crest of the hill, spilling milky pinks across the crisping light blue sky. The navy at the edges slowly retreated to the other side of the planet as the current side awakened for their next day. The stars left with the navy velvet, too far embeddedto not simply slip off with the movements. The sliver of moon lingered slowly, waiting for the last two on earth to awaken, before it finally gave its blessings and left with the retreating night sky.

The darker teenager was the first to rise, his back sore but his eyes well rested. He stretched and twisted, loosening his muscles for the long day ahead. He was the drive in their force, the underlining passion that pushed them further than they had ever dreamed of going. Stretching across the land like wild dogs through a field, the boys milled ahead, taking great leaps and bounds to their dreamed land, to their sanctuary, to their home. He was just starting to get the flame back in his eyes when the golden-faced youth sleeping next to his feet stirred. He let them lower to the slowly blossoming boy and the life within them flared as life cast down upon them with the rising sun.

"Morning Pip," he said, throat a little hoarse but otherwise rather high and sophisticated.

He smiled as he opened his cornflower blue eyes and turned them to Damien. "G'morning love," he stretched out into the plush grass, arm stretching over the body indentation that Damien had left. Slowly, with the sureness of a lover in the home of their family, Pip stood up and sent a look through the field. He smiled a little more quaintly before turned back to Damien, face smooth and fresh thanks to the blessings of the earth. The cosmos were the only thing on their side now.

"We should get moving soon." he muttered, "I'll get breakfast started or something."

"Certainly," he replied softly, making the trek back up to the car alongside Damien, his hands gently smoothing out the wrinkles in his button down shirt. He lifted himself onto the hood of the car and stretched back, allowing his arms to extend over his head. He looked back up at the sky, like the night before and the days earlier, and he pondered.

Damien was in the car, shifting through the bags that lay strewn across the back, searching for the boxes of cereal or at least the carton of juice. However, each search came up empty handed and Damien was left with very few options. Empty boxes and cartons were the majority of items left within the back, half-spoiled baggies of meats, and dirtied bowls. He was not as hungry as he had always assumed during that time of day, so it was not much of a worry for him. But their food would have to be taken care of in the next town over.

"Pip,"

The blonde shifted and turned, looking over the side of the car's metal body and at the second boy. "Yes 'um?"

"We need to get going, we're out of food." He slammed the trunk and stepped over to the driver's side door. The door was thrown open and Damien took a seat behind the wheel of the car, staring at the blonde almost angrily.

Pip slid off the hood and pulled himself into the passenger seat, buckling up before smiling briefly at him, "That's fine love," he sent a longing look out the window, to the tender grass and to the milky sky, "They might be here soon either way,"

Both of them sighed at once, their breath mixing into the windshield. The engine revved to life as the metal machine burst to life, before Damien put it into gear and pushed its still cold mechanics into movement. It jerked before it lurched to full life and took them along the dirt road. The sun slowly settled itself higher and higher into the sky as the couple settled back into their routine, the one that they had practiced strictly for the past week.

Despite the sleep, he was exhausted beyond what was expected. The trio of scars that very dug into the right side of his back burned and prickled as they drove away from the field. With the pact had gone most of his power, everything that had supported his superiority long gone as the shapes were scratched into his back, pledging his neutrality in a fight that had decided his side long before his birth. All he had left was to keep himself and a small amount of Pip safe from unseen attacks, but the enemy was drawing closer and closer each day, finding ways into pure patches like the field they spent the night in; they were not safe from physical attacks, not protected from the spells that could be used when meeting in person.

They had to make it to the safest place on earth, the neutral ground between Heaven and Hell, where neither of them possessed an inch of the designated land; no-man's-land, middle ground, neutral zone. It certainly was not any better for their health as the rest of the world was, possibly worse, but it was a place where they could rest and live the rest of their life without interference from either side.

Pip would be safe on his own. He had strength in inner faith and that kept him safe, his power aided with that one bit of Damien's was enough to keep him fully shielded from anything that the conflicting sides could send to them. As long as they kept moving, everything would be okay. Every time they entered a pure patch, they would be safe for quite some time.

Everything would work out for the better. It had to. It was going to. It wasn't.

Damien glanced outside the window and blinked almost violently at the two deer that settled in a field beside the car. They drove past them quickly, their glassy eyes and pert ears following them for the briefest of moments before they jerked over and watched behind the speeding car, nearly radiating a sense of fright at whatever it was behind them.

Of course that side would go after him so rigidly, after all, he was their own, and their blood, and their kin; he had betrayed them. It must have been nearly impossible for them to understand why—had they ever experienced such a feeling?—to understand why he would decide to go against his faith, his inner beast; to tear himself away from what made him so much to go run with something they considered so little.

But Pip was much more than a human to the boy; he was motivation, he was the one that made him want to be more than just an ever powerful overlord. Eternal life paled with the idea that Pip would only be a small footnote in his life if it were a book. Spare his immortality for his love, how very drab. Like a scene from a romance novel.

That thought was ever present in Damien's mind. How his life seemed to reflect that of novel work. It could become maddening to even him, how his life was crafted, how his fate was molded, and how he was able to rip free from that with the assistance from such a gentle person like Pip. He felt himself becoming weaker and honestly not caring about it.

They were following their every move, waiting to send the troops out when they were too vulnerable. It was dangerous to leave the neutral areas, especially alone. They needed both types of protection to be safe from them.

Damien pressed a little harder on the pedal, forcing the metal beast to surge forward. Faster to the town they went, the wind running over the sharp curves of the car sending off whistling noises inside the body and to the two teens.

The blonde swallowed thickly and rubbed his eyes. They needn't say much anymore. It had grown quieter since their journey out of the cool, cloudy town of South Park. That was when the weight had been pressed onto his shoulders and chest too. Their lives had been twisted together in a way far more complicated that Pip had ever imagined. Perhaps he should have thought about such a thing far before he even asked Damien the question that threw them into this mess. The honeymoon phase was just ending, it seemed, and with that mindlessness, he had forgotten to think of what the other side thought of the matter.

Something flashed in the corner of Pip's eye and he saw on his other side Damien reacting immediately.

A deer launched itself in front of their car, glossy eyes quenched with fear and reflecting a dark ink.

Damien gripped the wheel tightly and forced the car to veer sideways, the side door of the beast hitting the thick body of the deer fully.

Pip flinched and cried out as the glass beside his head crackled and the deer was flicked off. A few flecks of blood beaded into the cracks along with some fine hairs, leaving a web of speckled art across Pip's window. He was crying now, drops of tears running down his cheeks as he hiccuped. He tried to understand what was happening, and a sliver of understanding occurred once the car was finally at a halt.

Damien was panting and shivering beside him, eyes wide and forehead glistening. He looked over his shoulder, jerking around a little.

The air grew thick in Pip's throat and he choked a little.

"Oh fuck," Damien quickly unbuckled and threw the door open. He motioned for Pip to do the same as he hurried out of it.

Pip followed with fumbling hands and he fell out of the car, just as something hard and heavy slammed into the back of it, crushing it to a flat slice of metal. The blonde could hear Damien curse and scuttle over towards him.

"Are you okay?" He helped him to his feet, panting little harder, dark eyes reflecting spots of highlights as the morning sun hit their faces.

He nodded swiftly as they stood up together and looked over the top of the ruined car, and at the silhouettes that stood against the cold morning road.

The deer they hit was still in its slumped position on the pavement; free from any signs of damage over that an oddly angled leg. It didn't spill any visible blood onto the road, its eyes were closed, and the sight of its death was not nearly as gruesome as it should have been.

Pip swallowed hard as he turned his eyes back to the demons off in the distance, perturbed by the crushed car in front of him with no signs of what might have actually crushed it.

Damien wrapped an arm around him and he slowly guided them backwards, eyes never leaving the still forms of the demons.

"Why aren't they moving?"

Damien grunted, "From the looks of it, they're waiting for us to turn our backs. Fucking cowards. They aren't willing to hurt me, but I'll be damned if they get anywhere close to you."

Pip swallowed down some fear and regretted it as it thickened with the rest of it in the pit of his stomach. He could feel everything in the world slowly disconnecting from him, the breathing falling off kilter as a force beyond nature rearranged the life around them. "What are we going to do know? The safe zone is blocked off by them and we cannot just walk backwards for who knows how many more miles."

"We're going to though…" Something flickered across Damien's face. Fear.

The blonde boy gulped and continued on, his hands wrapped around Damien's arm. He was disturbed by the lack of animals around, the silence that had swept over the area. Nothing seemed right at all. Even the mist on the grass at the sides of the road seemed off, too frosty for that time of year. He glanced back at the deer, only to find its big glossy eyes staring back at him. Pip whimpered and felt almost as if all of the innocence in the world left once the deer's girth slammed against the body of their speeding car.

"D-Damien,"

He shivered, looking frustrated and at wits end.

"Something seems off."

Damien hesitated.

He choked and screamed, "Something is off!" Pip glanced down at his stomach, frightened to find it openly bleeding.

* * *

_The tears were fresh in his eyes._ He was on the ground, lip broken and vision blurry, but that didn't stop him from gazing up in awe at the boy who stood above him. He was amazed to see the anti-Christ standing over him protectively, hands balled in fists.

"Damien…"

"Back off you fat piece of shit," his hands were shaking.

Pip slowly picked himself up and rubbed his mouth clean with the back of his hand. He was startled by the large streak of red that appeared. He licked his fingers and tried to clean his possibly dirtied face.

Cartman frowned, being wise and taking a careful step back. "Heh, sorry Damien, didn't know you and this fag were boning each other."

"Keep off," he ordered and Cartman went slightly rigid.

He brushed away his moment of stiffness and left the two, looking mildly pissed but otherwise unaffected.

Pip wasn't sure if that reaction comforted him or just made him feel worse.

Damien turned to him, eyes pointed vigorously to the ground with his bangs hiding them even further. He took the blonde's hands into his own and exhaled heavily; visibly shaking in what Pip assumed was anger. "This is never going to happen to you again,"

"Damien, it is fine…"

He blew air into his bangs and separated them just long enough for Pip to see his eyes. They were wide and there was a pulsating, angry ring of red around the lip of his iris, making his eyes glow with rage. The look gave Pip the chills, making his skin become bumpy and make his heart unsettled.

He gulped.

"We've come a long way from what we were eight years ago Pip,"

He was listening, but the words failed to register in his head.

"I don't hate you anymore. You aren't afraid of me anymore. My powers are finally under control… but you're still as meek and _submissive_ as you were years before. Grow a backbone!"

He flinched.

Damien growled, "For fuck's sake, get over this self-esteem shit and love yourself for once! Love yourself so that I can love you back!"

Pip flinched a second time and pressed his forehead against the shorter teen's shoulder. The tears were back, something he absolutely hated himself for doing, but they were there and they were free flowing. His chin scrunched up as he sniffled, guilt overwhelming him until his knees felt weak.

Damien let his hands go and wrapped his arms around Pip's thinning form. He could tell he was getting too thin, too weak.

Everything in his life felt like it was spiraling away. He was wasting away it almost seemed. The death of his sister and brother-in-law forced him into a new home, one that was just about to accept him but not quite ready yet. The bullying had felt like it was increasing by five percent each year, the times becoming less but the degree of it becoming worse. Worst of all, he felt as if his faith was slipping away; he was angry and lonely and depressed, longing for his sister and Joe, longing for at least someone he could get a hug from without being hurt afterwards…

Damien kissed him nice and quaint on the lips, his face long and tired. Pip's mood seemed to really have gotten to him. He pressed his face into the crook of the blonde boy's neck, "I will never let anyone hurt you again. Take as long as you need to get better, and I'll protect you along the way."

Pip let out a sob, _"Thank you."_

* * *

"Fuck! _Fuck!_" Damien screamed, allowing Pip to slip onto the ground. He pressed his hands over the gap that had suddenly appeared in Pip's stomach, trying in some vain hope to keep the blood from gushing out any faster.

He couldn't understand how the demons had gotten past their protection. Their minds should have been safe! How—how could they have possibly forced their eyes into seeing something that wasn't really there? How were they able to do it?

Pip whimpered and held tight onto Damien's wrist, showing just how strong he had become over the year or so. He would fight to stay alive, if not just to be with Damien that much longer.

The illusion wore off quickly, leaving him in front of a charred looking bipedal creature with a lithe form and hackled back. Sleek black eyes stared at him from the sides of the demon's constantly twitching head. One of its yellowed claws was soaked in red, obviously in the blood of his love.

Back in the old days, Damien would have blasted fire across the beast and fight him off. Back when he had power, he would have done it without thinking twice about it. But, without those same powers, he was trapped. He knew the monster wouldn't harm him. He was the son of the Prince of Darkness. He was the next incarnate of the Anti-Christ. He was the heir to the world. But Pip, the boy in his arms… he was nothing to the demon: just another human in its inhuman eyes… just another target in its queue.

Emotion flooded him, anger and sorrow, hopelessness and failure, all filling his heart at once. He was unaccustomed to such feelings, most of his life cradled under the idea that he was heartless, that he didn't need to feel such emotions. With the introduction of love into his life, the gates locked around that supposedly dead heart were forced open, leaving him almost hopeless in the onslaught of such deep emotion. Never before had he felt so strong sadness for humanity, never before feeling at such a loss. Anger was a basic emotion; one that he had used as a security blanket for thinking that he really did have full range of emotions. How very wrong he was about that.

Tears rolled down his cheeks, stunning him but more importantly, the demon standing in front of him.

Its forever quirking head paused just for a moment and leaned in, its snout flaring as it sniffed at the tears that came from its rebellious master. If such a demon had a tongue, it would be flickering out at the smell.

Damien found himself wondering how the other demons would react if he attacked the one in front of him. Would they snatch him away from Pip and force him back into the bowels of hell? Would they finalize the killing of the blonde as he struggled with the first demon? After all, it wasn't as if they were going to kill their superior… While Damien held no control over them at that moment, he was still better than their lives ever would be and his wasn't worth losing.

"Stop,"

The demon slammed full force back, its thick ribs audibly cracking as it flew away from the two boys and onto the pavement. Its movements reminded Damien much of the way the deer had moved when they had struck it, lunging across the road with already dead weight.

Something salty settled at the back of his throat. Damien looked over his shoulder and nearly cringed at the light that was being emitted from behind him. He couldn't help but scowl at the man stepping towards them from higher up the road.

With golden hair, flawless features, and unsettling light eyes, Archangel Michael approached the two with careful, deliberate steps. "Damien," his voice was indescribable, powerful yet gentle, rigid but flexible, a paradox within itself that send currents of heat through Damien's human skin.

He gulped down a bitter remark and replied as easily as he could, "Michael…"

The archangel stepped up behind them and knelt before the boys, his hand placing itself onto Pip's fevered forehead.

The blonde was in true agony; Damien could read it so easily on his face. The sight of his love in such distress, teetering on the edge of death, frightened Damien beyond he had ever imagined he could be frightened.

The tears that were still bubbling down his face went mostly unnoticed by the holy being and completely forgotten about by the dark-haired teen.

"Your faith used to be strong young Philip,"

Pip whimpered and started to cry as the angel slowly removed the raven-headed teenager off of him. He simpered as the archangel placed a gentle hand onto the wound, applying less pressure to it but giving him considerably more comfort. Pip wanted to touch Damien as the angel talked to him, but he felt his conscious of the world outside of Michael's face slipping. Soon, his vision had glowed into a white area, only the glow of the archangel visible in the white starkness. "I want to see Damien,"

His light eyes were gentle as they looked down on him, soothing him only slightly. "I must advise you that while Damien seems to have decided to go against his fate… well, fate is very hard to break from. Something very, very powerful has to intervene, and even then, if He doesn't bid it so… it will not happen."

"Please, Saint Michael, I do not wish to cause harm to anyone. I do not wish to bring upon the end of the world. I wish for Damien to be good, for Damien to be happy. I love him very deeply and we've gotten so far in improving…" Pip let out a pained noise as a spike of pain struck through his stomach, "I just think that to get out of this conflict completely… we need to stay away from both the side of holy good… and holy evil."

Michael pressed a firm hand to the blonde's forehead and sighed, "Young Philip, I do not wish to see you harmed by this. Your logic is safe, yes, but it does not mean it is going to all go as planned. Hell wants their heir back and as you see, they plan on doing anything to get him."

"Please, we need refuge. We need to get to a land where neither Hell nor Heaven will judge. Only being us and planet earth."

Those bright eyes settled against his own. No words were needed to be told to give Pip the message the archangel was trying to tell him the whole time.

There was no safe land that the boys were searching for. Earth was the no-man's-land in the battles between Heaven and Hell. If they wanted to be safe, they would have to choose a side or be torn apart.

The boy was not sure if he was supposed to be happy about the idea or not. It implied to him that Damien would be welcomed into Heaven if he really did pledge himself away from his father.

That meant a lot, coming from the angel who had a very long history with Satan and subsequently defeated him.

"Saint Michael…"

"Yes, young Philip?"

"If… If Damien were willing to give his entire being up to the Lord… he would be welcomed into Heaven?"

The handsome face of the archangel hardened in sadness. "In theory, yes…"

Pip whimpered.

"I know that your judgment is clouded with your emotions, it is the price of being human with free-will after all… but you must understand how the children of the darkness work. I don't question Damien's love for you. But his commitment in straying away from his path as Anti-Christ… young Philip, you must see, Satan will take every effort he can to get his son back on his side. Damien is his last chance to take control of Earth before the Final War. He's desperate."

* * *

"_Damien, I need to ask you something very serious."_ Pip said to him softly as they lounged against the broken couple's-swing.

"Yeah?" He leaned only that much closer to the boy, his head resting against his shoulder. He nuzzled into his and made a warm noise.

"Would you give up your title as Anti-Christ for me?"

The warm noise settled and the two of them stewed in silence, the cold air slowly sinking into the unused ears. The blanket they shared was futile in holding back the terrible chill that soon befell the both of them.

"What?"

Pip swallowed heavily, "I don't know what will happen to me if you continue to be the anti-Christ... would you be willing to give it all up... for me?"

Damien sighed and stroked his cheek so very gently. "I don't know... honestly, I just don't know. I would lose you, that much I know... but where are we going with this, Pip? What happens if I give up my title and we end up not working out?"

His heart ached. He felt himself feeling betrayed, that Damien would even think that something bad would happen and they would split. Pip was under the heart-lifting feeling that they would be together forever. That what they had was something so magical and so primal that it would stand strong against anything, even the young age and the divorce statistics. But he had warrant to feel the way he did, the blonde knew. Caution was a gift bestowed upon man for good reason. Caution was placed to warn the lovelorn heart of possible misbringings to come. It was to protect him.

He kissed him softly, "Right now, I would give my powers for you. I can't stand being without you. I need you and I love you..."

He kissed back, just as soft and just as settled, his heart sinking back into a semi-peaceful state. "I understand."

That night was when the pact was made and finalized without his father's consent, baring him with three vertical lines across his scapula, marking him as a traitor and as a being unwelcomed. _That night, Damien had freed himself from burden and had pledged his heart to his love._

* * *

Damien's dark eyes were filled with the visions of demons and the molten face of his father. Fear and anger clenched at his throat, choking the life out of him as his father glared down at his son.

"Damien," his voiced and resonated through the boy's head, making his bones vibrate.

He refused to cringe.

"You foolish boy, come back home, fulfill your destiny, take your place as overlord of the world. You can have the boy and still be the anti-Christ. Both of them you can have at once, you fool. Come back home, bring Pip along with you. We'll start planning for the Final War. I'll even grant Pip forever life so that he may become a part of our family if you love him so." The red being spoke, leaving his son to stare wide-eyed and mouth agape at nothing.

"That's not true father, you've taught me well enough. You cannot grant immortality to a mortal. Only those born from an immortal may have the gift. I wish to live with Pip and earth and I wish to die with Pip on an untainted earth. I enjoy the world just as it is, occupied by the holy or not. If it satisfieshim, I am happy. I will give everything for him, Father. I give away my title of anti-Christ for him, Father. You cannot change my mind."

The being sighed thickly and turned his gaze back at Damien. The way that his eyes looked at him made Damien nearly drop to his knees in terror. The image was trapped within his head only, with no way of looking away. Tears peeped in the corners of his eyes as he did sink down to his hands and knees and clench at the pavement until his fingers were raw and bleeding.

"Stop!" he cried.

"Damien, my son, my blood, my fool; Pip's faith has twisted your mind with it's dirty ways of manipulation. Heaven does not wish for you two to live, nor does it wish for the world to be happy and safe. Heaven is just a child, a child who can't deal with his toys not acting the way he wants them to. Earth is just a snail to Him, and when the snails fails to do what He wishes, he sends down terror onto it, salting away the water within it's body, twisting its life under his hands simply for the feeling of being_ powerful._ That is why I left heaven, that is why I rebelled. I am here to bring out the true nature of man, to free him from the reigns of God and free him for the burden that God placed upon man. You are here to help me with that goal, my son. Help me save man, help Pip be set free."

He gagged, feeling his nerves numb with electricity.

"I like this Pip fellow, don't get me wrong my son. I would love to see him by your side for the rest of eternity. I can make it happen as well. But we need him to be faithful to our cause, not God's. We need him on our side, my son. If he accepts me wholeheartedly, he will be safe and he will be loved."

Damien felt the image of his father fade from his eyes and his vision of the world around him returned. He could feel his heart ripping in two, his love for his father and his love for Pip tugging at opposite sides. He believed what his father had told him, he knew what kind of being God was. He saw it every day... but his vision had been changed when Pip had entered his life. He didn't know what to believe.

Pip and Michael reappeared before him, Pip appearing fully healed and his face filled with a golden flush. He smiled weakly as Michael let go of his arms and allowed him to steady himself on his feet. He muttered a thank you and looked down upon Damien with damned eyes. A ring of light radiated around his love's iris, rebelling against Damien's red one.

His heart sank.

"Pip,"

"Damien,"

They said their names at the exact same moment, both shutting their lips quickly in embarrassment. And for a moment, all seemed like it had been before the conflict had started. They were both fresh-faced youngsters new to love, both within qualms of ecstasy at the mere sight of the other. But all of that was over, and the twist of faiths was started, pulling apart a couple that felt like they could outrace the sun and pluck the moon from the sky.

"Join the side of light,"

"Join the side of truth,"

They spoke in unison, both sides staring into a shock at the words the other had uttered. Both males had imagined the other being totally neutral to this matter. Both of their stomachs grew sour.

However, they both understood that peace would never reach them if they didn't take a side. But was either side right? Or, was the other side as bad as they assumed? Was it right of them to except on side of change for the other? Was it selfish or was it rightful sacrifice?

"I love you, so much," Pip uttered as he went to take his hand.

"I love you too," Damien gripped it with a strong hold and smoothed his thumb across the top of his hand.

Pip placed himself between Damien's shoulders and let his face nestle against the crook of his neck, just like they used to do. "What are we going to do my love?"

"Where might we run now?" He eyes closed as he placed his lips onto the crown of Pip's hair.

"There is nowhere to run..."

"Where might we rest?"

"We must choose a side, my dear,"

"Where might we be free?"

"God will take care of us,"

"Where might we be happy?"

"Satan will blanket us with security,"

Their ends enveloped around one another, fingers lacing and palms pressing. Their forheads touched and their lips grazed. Their breath became rhythmic and calm, mixing.

"What is the right choice?"

"Is there a wrong?"

"I can't imagine a world without you, Damien,"

"I can't imagine living without you, Pip,"

"We're trapped,"

"We'll find a way,"

Michael shifted, wary.

Satan stirred in the pits of hell.

Their eyes opened spontaneously, ring of gold reflecting against the ring of red. The plan was decided and the pact made with silent kisses. The two turned away from the demons and they faced toward Michael and they ran forward. They ran as quick as they could, past the archangel and to whatever lie ahead of them. Like a phoenix, their wings spread out like a wildfire and allowed them to soar ahead, something dormant inside of them allowing them to run to their fullest potential. Their hands were linked until their very last steps, one's blood spilt by the holy sword, another's spilt by a yellowed claw.

They would meet somewhere in the end, be it in the pits of icy hell or in the halls of pearly heaven. Nothing could bring them apart, and if something tried, they would make a new land, just for them to live the rest of their afterlife within.


End file.
